The Constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia unequivocally stated that the nation is governed by a federal system in which self-rule and shared rule are exercised. According to studies, almost 40% of the world population is governed by various types of federal systems exercised either by capitalists or non-capitalists.
In the United States, due to the vastness of the territory, the constitution preferred to implement a federal system based on the administrative divisions of the various regions.
The constitution also underlined that citizens of the country are sovereign and the nation is created to defend their rights to the pursuit of happiness. Respecting minority rights is also guaranteed by the constitution.
Though citizens have various ethno linguistic back ground, currently, they use English as an official language. In fact, the advancement of capitalism and strong economy helped them to develop mono culture and respecting individual rights as a corner stone of their democracy.
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The legislative in the USA has two chambers; the lower house and the upper house or the senate. Both the members of the legislator and the senate are directly elected by citizens and have the mandate to enact laws and to oversight the executive branch of the government.
Since the introduction of the constitution in 1779, no government was overthrown by military means and this indicates that how the country is the most politically stable in the world. The constitution was amended in many occasions based on the articles enshrined in this regard.
India is regarded as the largest democracy inhabited by more than 1.2 billion populations with 800 language groups. The country pursues parliamentary democracy. Its constitution underlined that individual right is the cornerstone for respecting group rights and regarded that denying individual rights makes respecting group rights meaningless. Political representation through multiparty system and periodical election is the base for political continuity. Administrative regions are divided based on geographical location rather than along ethnic line.
During the Soviet era, the Soviet constitution declared that the country pursued the federal system and the nation had been divided in to 15 republics and they had been relatively autonomous. The nation's constitution also declared that the nation and nationalities rights had been guaranteed by the constitution. The country had bi-cameral type of the legislative organ. It was similar in content to the current Ethiopian constitution which comprises the House of People's Representatives and the House of Federation.
That time, the Soviet system pursued the one party system and the communist party had the dominant power. As to the revolutionary democracy prevailed that time, the party played the vanguard role while the public passively follow the instruction. Unlike the western democracy, power had not emanated from public vote and the ultimate say with regard to the socio-political life of the public was rendered to the top party officials. The presidents of the republics had been the members of the ruling party. Hence, the republics "self -rule" had been compromised by party line structure through democratic centralism.
The Ethiopian constitution was ratified in 1995, and its preamble clearly explains that the constitution is ratified by the representatives of the Ethiopian nations, nationalities, and peoples, and the sovereignty of the nation is derived from them. According to the constitution, nations, nationalities, and peoples shall be represented in the House of Federation. The way they acquire the position is through assignment by their respective regional governments.
As the country pursues a parliamentary system, the ruling party will have a majority both in the House of People's Representatives and the House of Federation, which paves the way to being a dominant power. However, it also gives opposition parties seats in the parliament based on the votes they win during the national election.
The House of Federation is part of the legislative part of the government that is mandated to interpret the constitution if there is any question it concerns and make decisions accordingly. On the other hand, interpreting the laws is the mandate of the legislative organ. Ethiopia's constitution has a different form from others in this case. In the West and other countries, the constitution is interpreted by the constitutional court, and this is also practiced in South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya.
According to the constitution, the objectives of the introduction of the federal governance are among others, to decentralize the unitary system of administration which prevailed for many decades in the nation's modern history since the dawn of the 20th century. In addition, it is regarded as a tool to empower various ethnic groups who claimed that they had been marginalized from the political, economic as well as social affairs of the nation in the past.
Each region has fiscal autonomy to collect tax and to allocate budget to govern. In addition, based on the federal government calculation, they will be provided subsidy according to the method the rule utilized.
Unlike other federal system such as geographic based administrative units, according to the authors of the constitution, the federal system of Ethiopia has unique feature which helps to address past grievances and to accommodate diversity. Similar to the federal government, each federal unit has its own constitution. Some regions' constitutions stipulate that the region's land belongs to the indigenous ethnic groups and the non- indigenous groups have the right to live there as long as they are abided by the regions laws.
By the same token, the constitution's article 10 indicates that citizens have the right to live in every part of the country and can generate wealth. It also indicates that all human rights conventions declared by the United Nations are part of the constitution. Civil and political rights are also became part of the constitution.
Each region's territory is demarcated based on language. According to the spirit of the constitution such demarcation helped peoples to promote their culture and language. In addition, it helped citizens to utilize their language as a working language which is a testimony of self-governance.
It is obvious that Ethiopia is a multicultural and multilingual country and each nationality have their own tangible and intangible heritages and history which enabled them to govern themselves. However, the past injustice systems did not consider this and left the nationalities to be marginalized and to live under the yoke of feudalism and dictatorship in obscured status.
According to the proponents of group rights, though Ethiopian nations and nationalities have their own past, they have common destiny and this brought them together to withstand colonialism but the past political establishments failed to transform the nation from feudal socioeconomic system in to the modern democratic system and made the nation to be one of the most pauperized country in the world. Though the former ruling party (EPRDF) introduced the constitution, it had never lived up to the principle of the constitution.
According to article 39, for instance, each ethnic group has the right to exercise its self-determination up to secession, but when many ethnic groups demanded to establish their own regions or zones, the regime did not respond properly; rather, it crushed violently and incurred the loss of human life and property destruction. The Sidama incident can be mentioned as the case in point in this regard.
Recently, however, following the coming to power of the current government, the demand for the establishment of regions is properly addressed through referendum. Formation of the new regions, such as the Sidama, South Western Ethiopia, Southern Ethiopia, and Central Ethiopia Regions, can be cited as the case in point. Such measures brought a glimpse of hope to the citizens that the government will address the nation's generational-long political deadlock step by step through dialogue and a peaceful manner.
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Some argue that the Ethiopian constitution ratified 32 years ago can be said to be a foundation for peace and stability. But one can judge that by looking at the reality on the ground. Ever since the constitution was introduced, the displacement of citizens and conflicts among various ethnic groups have been the order of the day. This phenomenon necessitates the application of the constitution on the ground as per what is on the paper, and this in turn needs a common understanding towards the constitution.
Still, the nation could not harness the positive outcome of the constitution because attaining peace and stability seems a long journey. Respecting their diversity, improving their relationship, tolerating their differences, and strengthening their national unity by tapping the opportunity created by the constitution is essential. Without the rule of law, accountability and respecting citizens' rights would be nightmarish.
As mentioned above, Ethiopia is one of the few ancient countries that had its own government and governing system, but the stagnated nature of the system even in the 20th century posed conflict among various groups for many generations. Therefore, it is time to resolve the problem through dialogue and craft a new governance system.
The government showed its commitment to resolving the nation's generational-long political problems, including amending the constitution, and to that end, it established the National Dialogue Commission. Hence, all citizens should stand together and exert their maximum effort to bring long-lasting solutions through dialogue.
